Bernard J. Dwyer

Bernard James Dwyer (January 24, 1921, Perth Amboy, New Jersey – October 31, 1998, Metuchen, New Jersey) was an American Democratic Party politician, who served as a United States Representative from New Jersey from 1981 to 1993.

Biography

Dwyer was born in Perth Amboy, Middlesex County, New Jersey, to Daniel F. and Alice (Zehrer) Dwyer. A Roman Catholic, he attended public elementary and high schools. He attended Rutgers University-Newark. He served in the United States Navy during World War II (1940–1945). He married Lilyan Sudzina in 1944. They had a daughter, Pamela Dwyer Stockton.

Dwyer was an insurance broker by profession. His political career began when he successfully ran for a seat on the Edison, New Jersey city council, serving 1958–1969. He was elected the city's mayor that year, serving a single four-year term. Dwyer served as a member of the New Jersey Senate, where he represented the 18th Legislative District from 1974 to 1980.

He was elected to the United States House of Representatives, and served six terms (January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1993). He represented New Jersey's 15th congressional district during his first term, but redistricting after the 1980 Census, shifted him to the 6th district.

Dwyer did not seek reelection in 1992, and retired in 1993. Redistricting after the 1990 Census had merged his district with that of fellow Democrat Frank Pallone.

His papers of 1981 to 1992, are stored at the Rutgers University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives in New Brunswick, New Jersey. They include congressional office files consisting chiefly of documentation accumulated while he was a member of the United States House Committee on Appropriations.

Dwyer died on October 31, 1998, of a heart attack while driving his car in Metuchen, New Jersey. He is buried at St. Gertrude's Cemetery in Colonia, New Jersey.

External links

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Bernard James Dwyer at The Political Graveyard
• Bernard J. Dwyer at Find a Grave Retrieved on 2009-03-04
• "Bernard James Dwyer." Marquis Who's Who TM. Marquis Who's Who, 2009. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC. Document Number: K2016524728. Fee. Accessed 2009-12-08 via Fairfax County Public Library.